In the annals
of men, individuals have not been lacking who conspicuously
devoted their lives to the socio-religious reform of their
connected peoples. We find them in every epoch and in all lands.
In India, there lived those who transmitted to the world the
Vedas, and there was also the great Gautama Buddha; China had
its Confucius; the Avesta was produced in Iran. Babylonia gave
to the world one of the greatest reformers, the Prophet Abraham
(not to speak of such of his ancestors as Enoch and Noah about
whom we have very scanty information). The Jewish people may
rightly be proud of a long series of reformers: Moses, Samuel,
David, Solomon, and Jesus among others.
Two points are
to note: Firstly these reformers claimed in general to be the
bearers each of a Divine mission, and they left behind them
sacred books incorporating codes of life for the guidance of
their peoples. Secondly there followed fratricidal wars, and
massacres and genocides became the order of the day, causing
more or less a complete loss of these Divine messages. As to the
books of Abraham, we know them only by the name; and as for the
books of Moses, records tell us how they were repeatedly
destroyed and only partly restored.
Concept of God
If one should
judge from the relics of the past already brought to light of
the homo sapiens, one finds that man has always been
conscious of the existence of a Supreme Being, the Master and
Creator of all. Methods and approaches may have differed, but
the people of every epoch have left proofs of their attempts to
obey God. Communication with the Omnipresent yet invisible God
has also been recognised as possible in connection with a small
fraction of men with noble and exalted spirits. Whether this
communication assumed the nature of an incarnation of the
Divinity or simply resolved itself into a medium of reception of
Divine messages (through inspiration or revelation), the purpose
in each case was the guidance of the people. It was but natural
that the interpretations and explanations of certain systems
should have proved more vital and convincing than others.
Every system of
metaphysical thought develops its own terminology. In the course
of time terms acquire a significance hardly contained in the
word and translations fall short of their purpose. Yet there is
no other method to make people of one group understand the
thoughts of another. Non-Muslim readers in particular are
requested to bear in mind this aspect which is a real yet
unavoidable handicap.
By the end of
the 6th century, after the birth of Jesus Christ, men had
already made great progress in diverse walks of life. At that
time there were some religions which openly proclaimed that they
were reserved for definite races and groups of men only, of
course they bore no remedy for the ills of humanity at large.
There were also a few which claimed universality, but declared
that the salvation of man lay in the renunciation of the world.
These were the religions for the elite, and catered for an
extremely limited number of men. We need not speak of regions
where there existed no religion at all, where atheism and
materialism reigned supreme, where the thought was solely of
occupying one self with one's own pleasures, without any regard
or consideration for the rights of others.
Arabia
A perusal of
the map of the major hemisphere (from the point of view of the
proportion of land to sea), shows the Arabian Peninsula lying at
the confluence of the three great continents of Asia, Africa and
Europe. At the time in question. this extensive Arabian
subcontinent composed mostly of desert areas was inhabited by
people of settled habitations as well as nomads. Often it was
found that members of the same tribe were divided into these two
groups, and that they preserved a relationship although
following different modes of life. The means of subsistence in
Arabia were meagre. The desert had its handicaps, and trade
caravans were features of greater importance than either
agriculture or industry. This entailed much travel, and men had
to proceed beyond the peninsula to Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia,
Iraq, Sind, India and other lands.
We do not know
much about the Libyanites of Central Arabia, but Yemen was
rightly called Arabia Felix. Having once been the seat
of the flourishing civilizations of Sheba and Ma'in even before
the foundation of the city of Rome had been laid, and having
later snatched from the Byzantians and Persians several
provinces, greater Yemen which had passed through the hey-day of
its existence, was however at this time broken up into
innumerable principalities, and even occupied in part by foreign
invaders. The Sassanians of Iran, who had penetrated into Yemen
had already obtained possession of Eastern Arabia. There was
politico-social chaos at the capital (Mada'in = Ctesiphon), and
this found reflection in all her territories. Northern Arabia
had succumbed to Byzantine influences, and was faced with its
own particular problems. Only Central Arabia remained immune
from the demoralising effects of foreign occupation.
In this limited
area of Central Arabia, the existence of the triangle of Mecca-Ta'if-Madinah
seemed something providential. Mecca, desertic, deprived of
water and the amenities of agriculture in physical features
represented Africa and the burning Sahara. Scarcely fifty miles
from there, Ta'if presented a picture of Europe and its frost.
Madinah in the North was not less fertile than even the most
temperate of Asiatic countries like Syria. If climate has any
influence on human character, this triangle standing in the
middle of the major hemisphere was, more than any other region
of the earth, a miniature reproduction of the entire world. And
here was born a descendant of the Babylonian Abraham, and the
Egyptian Hagar, Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, a Meccan by
origin and yet with stock related, both to Madinah and Ta'if.
Religion
From the point
of view of religion, Arabia was idolatrous; only a few
individuals had embraced religions like Christianity, Mazdaism,
etc. The Meccans did possess the notion of the One God, but they
believed also that idols had the power to intercede with Him.
Curiously enough, they did not believe in the Resurrection and
Afterlife. They had preserved the rite of the pilgrimage to the
House of the One God, the Ka'bah, an institution set up under
divine inspiration by their ancestor Abraham, yet the two
thousand years that separated them from Abraham had caused to
degenerate this pilgrimage into the spectacle of a commercial
fair and an occasion of senseless idolatry which far from
producing any good, only served to ruin their individual
behaviour, both social and spiritual.
Society
In spite of the
comparative poverty in natural resources, Mecca was the most
developed of the three points of the triangle. Of the three,
Mecca alone had a city-state, governed by a council of ten
hereditary chiefs who enjoyed a clear division of power. (There
was a minister of foreign relations, a minister guardian of the
temple, a minister of oracles, a minister guardian of offerings
to the temple, one to determine the torts and the damages
payable, another in charge of the municipal council or
parliament to enforce the decisions of the ministries. There
were also ministers in charge of military affairs like
custodianship of the flag, leadership of the cavalry etc.). As
well reputed caravan-leaders, the Meccans were able to obtain
permission from neighbouring empires like Iran, Byzantium and
Abyssinia - and to enter into agreements with the tribes that
lined the routes traversed by the caravans - to visit their
countries and transact import and export business. They also
provided escorts to foreigners when they passed through their
country as well as the territory of allied tribes, in Arabia
(cf. Ibn Habib, Muhabbar). Although not interested much
in the preservation of ideas and records in writing, they
passionately cultivated arts and letters like poetry, oratory
discourses and folk tales. Women were generally well treated,
they enjoyed the privilege of possessing property in their own
right, they gave their consent to marriage contracts, in which
they could even add the condition of reserving their right to
divorce their husbands. They could remarry when widowed or
divorced. Burying girls alive did exist in certain classes, but
that was rare.
Birth of the
Prophet
It was in the
midst of such conditions and environments that Muhammad was born
in 569 after Christ. His father, 'Abdullah had died some weeks
earlier, and it was his grandfather who took him in charge.
According to the prevailing custom, the child was entrusted to a
Bedouin foster-mother, with whom he passed several years in the
desert. All biographers state that the infant prophet sucked
only one breast of his foster-mother, leaving the other for the
sustenance of his foster-brother. When the child was brought
back home, his mother, Aminah, took him to his maternal uncles
at Madinah to visit the tomb of 'Abdullah. During the return
journey, he lost his mother who died a sudden death. At Mecca,
another bereavement awaited him, in the death of his
affectionate grandfather. Subjected to such privations, he was
at the age of eight, consigned at last to the care of his uncle,
Abu-Talib, a man who was generous of nature but always short of
resources and hardly able to provide for his family.
Young Muhammad
had therefore to start immediately to earn his livelihood; he
served as a shepherd boy to some neighbours. At the age of ten
he accompanied his uncle to Syria when he was leading a caravan
there. No other travels of Abu-Talib are mentioned, but there
are references to his having set up a shop in Mecca. (Ibn
Qutaibah, Ma'arif). It is possible that Muhammad helped
him in this enterprise also.
By the time he
was twenty-five, Muhammad had become well known in the city for
the integrity of his disposition and the honesty of his
character. A rich widow, Khadijah, took him in her employ and
consigned to him her goods to be taken for sale to Syria.
Delighted with the unusual profits she obtained as also by the
personal charms of her agent, she offered him her hand.
According to divergent reports, she was either 28 or 40 years of
age at that time, (medical reasons prefer the age of 28 since
she gave birth to five more children). The union proved happy.
Later, we see him sometimes in the fair of Hubashah (Yemen), and
at least once in the country of the 'Abd al-Qais (Bahrain-Oman),
as mentioned by Ibn Hanbal. There is every reason to believe
that this refers to the great fair of Daba (Oman), where,
according to Ibn al-Kalbi (cf. Ibn Habib, Muhabbar),
the traders of China, of Hind and Sind (India, Pakistan), of
Persia, of the East and the West assembled every year,
travelling both by land and sea. There is also mention of a
commercial partner of Muhammad at Mecca. This person, Sa'ib by
name reports: "We relayed each other; if Muhammad led the
caravan, he did not enter his house on his return to Mecca
without clearing accounts with me; and if I led the caravan, he
would on my return enquire about my welfare and speak nothing
about his own capital entrusted to me."
An Order of
Chivalry
Foreign traders
often brought their goods to Mecca for sale. One day a certain
Yemenite (of the tribe of Zubaid) improvised a satirical poem
against some Meccans who had refused to pay him the price of
what he had sold, and others who had not supported his claim or
had failed to come to his help when he was victimised. Zuhair,
uncle and chief of the tribe of the Prophet, felt great remorse
on hearing this just satire. He called for a meeting of certain
chieftains in the city, and organized an order of chivalry,
called Hilf al-fudul, with the aim and object of aiding
the oppressed in Mecca, irrespective of their being dwellers of
the city or aliens. Young Muhammad became an enthusiastic member
of the organisation. Later in life he used to say: "I have
participated in it, and I am not prepared to give up that
privilege even against a herd of camels; if somebody should
appeal to me even today, by virtue of that pledge, I shall hurry
to his help."
Beginning of
Religious Consciousness
Not much is
known about the religious practices of Muhammad until he was
thirty-five years old, except that he had never worshipped
idols. This is substantiated by all his biographers. It may be
stated that there were a few others in Mecca, who had likewise
revolted against the senseless practice of paganism, although
conserving their fidelity to the Ka'bah as the house dedicated
to the One God by its builder Abraham.
About the year
605 of the Christian era, the draperies on the outer wall of the
Ka'bah took fire. The building was affected and could not bear
the brunt of the torrential rains that followed. The
reconstruction of the Ka'bah was thereupon undertaken. Each
citizen contributed according to his means; and only the gifts
of honest gains were accepted. Everybody participated in the
work of construction, and Muhammad's shoulders were injured in
the course of transporting stones. To identify the place whence
the ritual of circumambulation began, there had been set a black
stone in the wall of the Ka'bah. dating probably from the time
of Abraham himself. There was rivalry among the citizens for
obtaining the honour of transposing this stone in its place.
When there was danger of blood being shed, somebody suggested
leaving the matter to Providence, and accepting the arbitration
of him who should happen to arrive there first. It chanced that
Muhammad just then turned up there for work as usual. He was
popularly known by the appellation of al-Amin (the
honest), and everyone accepted his arbitration without
hesitation. Muhammad placed a sheet of cloth on the ground, put
the stone on it and asked the chiefs of all the tribes in the
city to lift together the cloth. Then he himself placed the
stone in its proper place, in one of the angles of the building,
and everybody was satisfied.
It is from this
moment that we find Muhammad becoming more and more absorbed in
spiritual meditations. Like his grandfather, he used to retire
during the whole month of Ramadan to a cave in Jabal-an-Nur
(mountain of light). The cave is called `Ghar-i-Hira' or the
cave of research. There he prayed, meditated, and shared his
meagre provisions with the travellers who happened to pass by.
Revelation
He was forty
years old, and it was the fifth consecutive year since his
annual retreats, when one night towards the end of the month of
Ramadan, an angel came to visit him, and announced that God had
chosen him as His messenger to all mankind. The angel taught him
the mode of ablutions, the way of worshipping God and the
conduct of prayer. He communicated to him the following Divine
message:
With the name of
God, the Most Merciful, the All-Merciful.
Read: with the name of thy Lord Who created,
Created man from what clings,
Read: and thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught man what he knew not. (Quran 96:1-5)
Deeply
affected, he returned home and related to his wife what had
happened, expressing his fears that it might have been something
diabolic or the action of evil spirits. She consoled him, saying
that he had always been a man of charity and generosity, helping
the poor, the orphans, the widows and the needy, and assured him
that God would protect him against all evil.
Then came a
pause in revelation, extending over three years. The Prophet
must have felt at first a shock, then a calm, an ardent desire,
and after a period of waiting, a growing impatience or
nostalgia. The news of the first vision had spread and at the
pause the sceptics in the city had begun to mock at him and cut
bitter jokes. They went so far as to say that God had forsaken
him.
During the
three years of waiting. the Prophet had given himself up more
and more to prayers and to spiritual practices. The revelations
were then resumed and God assured him that He had not at all
forsaken him: on the contrary it was He Who had guided him to
the right path: therefore he should take care of the orphans and
the destitute, and proclaim the bounty of God on him (cf. Q.
93:3-11). This was in reality an order to preach. Another
revelation directed him to warn people against evil practices,
to exhort them to worship none but the One God, and to abandon
everything that would displease God (Q. 74:2-7). Yet another
revelation commanded him to warn his own near relatives (Q.
26:214); and: "Proclaim openly that which thou art
commanded, and withdraw from the Associators (idolaters). Lo! we
defend thee from the scoffers" (15:94-5). According to Ibn
Ishaq, the first revelation (n. 17) had come to the Prophet
during his sleep, evidently to reduce the shock. Later
revelations came in full wakefulness.
The Mission
The Prophet
began by preaching his mission secretly first among his intimate
friends, then among the members of his own tribe and thereafter
publicly in the city and suburbs. He insisted on the belief in
One Transcendent God, in Resurrection and the Last Judgement. He
invited men to charity and beneficence. He took necessary steps
to preserve through writing the revelations he was receiving,
and ordered his adherents also to learn them by heart. This
continued all through his life, since the Quran was not revealed
all at once, but in fragments as occasions arose.
The number of
his adherents increased gradually, but with the denunciation of
paganism, the opposition also grew intenser on the part of those
who were firmly attached to their ancestral beliefs. This
opposition degenerated in the course of time into physical
torture of the Prophet and of those who had embraced his
religion. These were stretched on burning sands, cauterized with
red hot iron and imprisoned with chains on their feet. Some of
them died of the effects of torture, but none would renounce his
religion. In despair, the Prophet Muhammad advised his
companions to quit their native town and take refuge abroad, in
Abyssinia, "where governs a just ruler, in whose realm
nobody is oppressed" (Ibn Hisham). Dozens of Muslims
profited by his advice, though not all. These secret flights led
to further persecution of those who remained behind.
The Prophet
Muhammad [was instructed to call this] religion
"Islam," i.e. submission to the will of God. Its
distinctive features are two:
A harmonius
equilibrium between the temporal and the spiritual (the body
and the soul), permitting a full enjoyment of all the good
that God has created, (Quran 7:32), enjoining at the same
time on everybody duties towards God, such as worship,
fasting, charity, etc. Islam was to be the religion of the
masses and not merely of the elect.
A
universality of the call - all the believers becoming
brothers and equals without any distinction of class or race
or tongue. The only superiority which it recognizes is a
personal one, based on the greater fear of God and greater
piety (Quran 49:13).
Social Boycott
When a large
number of the Meccan Muslims migrated to Abyssinia, the leaders
of paganism sent an ultimatum to the tribe of the Prophet,
demanding that he should be excommunicated and outlawed and
delivered to the pagans for being put to death. Every member of
the tribe, Muslim and non-Muslim rejected the demand. (cf. Ibn
Hisham). Thereupon the city decided on a complete boycott of the
tribe: Nobody was to talk to them or have commercial or
matrimonial relations with them. The group of Arab tribes called
Ahabish, inhabiting the suburbs, who were allies of the Meccans,
also joined in the boycott, causing stark misery among the
innocent victims consisting of children, men and women, the old
and the sick and the feeble. Some of them succumbed yet nobody
would hand over the Prophet to his persecutors. An uncle of the
Prophet, Abu Lahab, however left his tribesmen and participated
in the boycott along with the pagans. After three dire years,
during which the victims were obliged to devour even crushed
hides, four or five non-Muslims, more humane than the rest and
belonging to different clans proclaimed publicly their
denunciation of the unjust boycott. At the same time, the
document promulgating the pact of boycott which had been hung in
the temple, was found, as Muhammad had predicted, eaten by white
ants, that spared nothing but the words God and Muhammad. The
boycott was lifted, yet owing to the privations that were
undergone the wife and Abu Talib, the chief of the tribe and
uncle of the Prophet died soon after. Another uncle of the
Prophet, Abu-Lahab, who was an inveterate enemy of Islam, now
succeeded to the headship of the tribe. (cf. lbn Hisham, Sirah).
The Ascension
It was at this
time that the Prophet Muhammad was granted the mi'raj
(ascension): He saw in a vision that he was received on heaven
by God, and was witness of the marvels of the celestial regions.
Returning, he brought for his community, as a Divine gift, the
[ritual prayer of Islam, the salaat], which constitutes a sort
of communion between man and God. It may be recalled that in the
last part of Muslim service of worship, the faithful employ as a
symbol of their being in the very presence of God, not concrete
objects as others do at the time of communion, but the very
words of greeting exchanged between the Prophet Muhammad and God
on the occasion of the former's mi'raj: "The
blessed and pure greetings for God! - Peace be with thee, O
Prophet, as well as the mercy and blessing of God! - Peace be
with us and with all the [righteous] servants of God!" The
Christian term "communion" implies participation in
the Divinity. Finding it pretentious, Muslims use the term
"ascension" towards God and reception in His presence,
God remaining God and man remaining man and no confusion between
the twain.
The news of
this celestial meeting led to an increase in the hostility of
the pagans of Mecca; and the Prophet was obliged to quit his
native town in search of an asylum elsewhere. He went to his
maternal uncles in Ta'if, but returned immediately to Mecca, as
the wicked people of that town chased the Prophet out of their
city by pelting stones on him and wounding him.
Migration to
Madinah
The annual
pilgrimage of the Ka'bah brought to Mecca people from all parts
of Arabia. The Prophet Muhammad tried to persuade one tribe
after another to afford him shelter and allow him to carry on
his mission of reform. The contingents of fifteen tribes, whom
he approached in succession, refused to do so more or less
brutally, but he did not despair. Finally he met half a dozen
inhabitants of Madinah who being neighbour of the Jews and the
Christians, had some notion of prophets and Divine messages.
They knew also that these "people of the Books" were
awaiting the arrival of a prophet - a last comforter. So these
Madinans decided not to lose the opportunity of obtaining an
advance over others, and forthwith embraced Islam, promising
further to provide additional adherents and necessary help from
Madinah. The following year a dozen new Madinans took the oath
of allegiance to him and requested him to provide with a
missionary teacher. The work of the missionary, Mus'ab, proved
very successful and he led a contingent of seventy-three new
converts to Mecca, at the time of the pilgrimage. These invited
the Prophet and his Meccan companions to migrate to their town,
and promised to shelter the Prophet and to treat him and his
companions as their own kith and kin. Secretly and in small
groups, the greater part of the Muslims emigrated to Madinah.
Upon this the pagans of Mecca not only confiscated the property
of the evacuees, but devised a plot to assassinate the Prophet.
It became now impossible for him to remain at home. It is worthy
of mention, that in spite of their hostility to his mission, the
pagans had unbounded confidence in his probity, so much so that
many of them used to deposit their savings with him. The Prophet
Muhammad now entrusted all these deposits to 'Ali, a cousin of
his, with instructions to return in due course to the rightful
owners. He then left the town secretly in the company of his
faithful friend, Abu-Bakr. After several adventures, they
succeeded in reaching Madinah in safety. This happened in 622,
whence starts the Hijrah calendar.
Reorganization
of the Community
For the better
rehabilitation of the displaced immigrants, the Prophet created
a fraternization between them and an equal number of well-to-do
Madinans. The families of each pair of the contractual brothers
worked together to earn their livelihood, and aided one another
in the business of life.
Further he
thought that the development of the man as a whole would be
better achieved if he co-ordinated religion and politics as two
constituent parts of one whole. To this end he invited the
representatives of the Muslims as well as the non-Muslim
inhabitants of the region: Arabs, Jews, Christians and others,
and suggested the establishment of a City-State in Madinah. With
their assent, he endowed the city with a written constitution -
the first of its kind in the world - in which he defined the
duties and rights both of the citizens and the head of the State
- the Prophet Muhammad was unanimously hailed as such - and
abolished the customary private justice. The administration of
justice became henceforward the concern of the central
organisation of the community of the citizens. The document laid
down principles of defence and foreign policy: it organized a
system of social insurance, called ma'aqil, in cases of too
heavy obligations. It recognized that the Prophet Muhammad would
have the final word in all differences, and that there was no
limit to his power of legislation. It recognized also explicitly
liberty of religion, particularly for the Jews, to whom the
constitutional act afforded equality with Muslims in all that
concerned life in this world (cf. infra n. 303).
Muhammad
journeyed several times with a view to win the neighbouring
tribes and to conclude with them treaties of alliance and mutual
help. With their help, he decided to bring to bear economic
pressure on the Meccan pagans, who had confiscated the property
of the Muslim evacuees and also caused innumerable damage.
Obstruction in the way of the Meccan caravans and their passage
through the Madinan region exasperated the pagans, and a bloody
struggle ensued.
In the concern
for the material interests of the community, the spiritual
aspect was never neglected. Hardly a year had passed after the
migration to Madinah, when the most rigorous of spiritual
disciplines, the fasting for the whole month of Ramadan every
year, was imposed on every adult Muslim, man and woman.
Struggle
Against Intolerance and Unbelief
Not content
with the expulsion of the Muslim compatriots, the Meccans sent
an ultimatum to the Madinans, demanding the surrender or at
least the expulsion of Muhammad and his companions but evidently
all such efforts proved in vain. A few months later, in the year
2 H., they sent a powerful army against the Prophet, who opposed
them at Badr; and the pagans thrice as numerous as the Muslims,
were routed. After a year of preparation, the Meccans again
invaded Madinah to avenge the defeat of Badr. They were now four
times as numerous as the Muslims. After a bloody encounter at
Uhud, the enemy retired, the issue being indecisive. The
mercenaries in the Meccan army did not want to take too much
risk, or endanger their safety.
In thc
meanwhile the Jewish citizens of Madinah began to foment
trouble. About the time of the victory of Badr, one of their
leaders, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, proceeded to Mecca to give
assurance of his alliance with the pagans, and to incite them to
a war of revenge. After the battle of Uhud, the tribe of the
same chieftain plotted to assassinate the Prophet by throwing on
him a mill-stone from above a tower, when he had gone to visit
their locality. In spite of all this, the only demand the
Prophet made of the men of this tribe was to quit the Madinan
region, taking with them all their properties, after selling
their immovables and recovering their debts from the Muslims.
The clemency thus extended had an effect contrary to what was
hoped. The exiled not only contacted the Meccans, but also the
tribes of the North, South and East of Madinah, mobilized
military aid, and planned from Khaibar an invasion of Madinah,
with forces four times more numerous than those employed at Uhud.
The Muslims prepared for a siege, and dug a ditch to defend
themselves against this hardest of all trials. Although the
defection of the Jews still remaining inside Madinah at a later
stage upset all strategy, yet with a sagacious diplomacy, the
Prophet succeeded in breaking up the alliance, and the different
enemy groups retired one after the other.
Alcoholic
drinks, gambling and games of chance were at this time declared
forbidden for the Muslims.
The
Reconciliation
The Prophet
tried once more to reconcile the Meccans and proceeded to Mecca.
The barring of the route of their Northern caravans had ruined
their economy. The Prophet promised them transit security,
extradition of their fugitives and the fulfillment of every
condition they desired, agreeing even to return to Madinah
without accomplishing the pilgrimage of the Ka'bah. Thereupon
the two contracting parties promised at Hudaibiyah in the
suburbs of Mecca, not only the maintenance of peace, but also
the observance of neutrality in their conflicts with third
parties.
Profiting by
the peace, the Prophet launched an intensive programme for the
propagation of his religion. He addressed missionary letters to
the foreign rulers of Byzantium, Iran, Abyssinia and other
lands. The Byzantine autocrat priest - Dughatur of the Arabs -
embraced Islam, but for this, was lynched by the Christian mob;
the prefect of Ma'an (Palestine) suffered the same fate, and was
decapitated and crucified by order of the emperor. A Muslim
ambassador was assassinated in Syria-Palestine; and instead of
punishing the culprit, the emperor Heraclius rushed with his
armies to protect him against the punitive expedition sent by
the Prophet (battle of Mu'tah).
The pagans of
Mecca hoping to profit by the Muslim difficulties, violated the
terms of their treaty. Upon this, the Prophet himself led an
army, ten thousand strong, and surprised Mecca which he occupied
in a bloodless manner. As a benevolent conqueror, he caused the
vanquished people to assemble, reminded them of their ill deeds,
their religious persecution, unjust confiscation of the evacuee
property, ceaseless invasions and senseless hostilities for
twenty years continuously. He asked them: "Now what do you
expect of me?" When everybody lowered his head with shame,
the Prophet proclaimed: "May God pardon you; go in peace;
there shall be no responsibility on you today; you are
free!" He even renounced the claim for the Muslim property
confiscated by the pagans. This produced a great psychological
change of hearts instantaneously. When a Meccan chief advanced
with a fulsome heart towards the Prophet, after hearing this
general amnesty, in order to declare his acceptance of Islam,
the Prophet told him: "And in my turn, I appoint you the
governor of Mecca!" Without leaving a single soldier in the
conquered city, the Prophet retired to Madinah. The Islamization
of Mecca, which was accomplished in a few hours, was complete.
Immediately
after the occupation of Mecca, the city of Ta'if mobilized to
fight against the Prophet. With some difficulty the enemy was
dispersed in the valley of Hunain, but the Muslims preferred to
raise the siege of nearby Ta'if and use pacific means to break
the resistance of this region. Less than a year later, a
delegation from Ta'if came to Madinah offering submission. But
it requested exemption from prayer, taxes and military service,
and the continuance of the liberty to adultery and fornication
and alcoholic drinks. It demanded even the conservation of the
temple of the idol al-Lat at Ta'if. But Islam was not a
materialist immoral movement; and soon the delegation itself
felt ashamed of its demands regarding prayer, adultery and wine.
The Prophet consented to concede exemption from payment of taxes
and rendering of military service; and added: You need not
demolish the temple with your own hands: we shall send agents
from here to do the job, and if there should be any
consequences, which you are afraid of on account of your
superstitions, it will be they who would suffer. This act of the
Prophet shows what concessions could be given to new converts.
The conversion of the Ta'ifites was so whole hearted that in a
short while, they themselves renounced the contracted
exemptions, and we find the Prophet nominating a tax collector
in their locality as in other Islamic regions.
In all these
"wars," extending over a period of ten years, the
non-Muslims lost on the battlefield only about 250 persons
killed, and the Muslim losses were even less. With these few
incisions, the whole continent of Arabia. with its million and
more of square miles, was cured of the abscess of anarchy and
immorality. During these ten years of disinterested struggle,
all thc peoples of the Arabian Peninsula and the southern
regions of Iraq and Palestine had voluntarily embraced Islam.
Some Christian, Jewish and Parsi groups remained attached to
their creeds, and they were granted liberty of conscience as
well as judicial and juridical autonomy.
In the year 10
H., when the Prophet went to Mecca for Hajj
(pilgrimage), he met 140,000 Muslims there, who had come from
different parts of Arabia to fulfil their religious obligation.
He addressed to them his celebrated sermon, in which he gave a
resume of his teachings: "Belief in One God without images
or symbols, equality of all the Believers without distinction of
race or class, the superiority of individuals being based solely
on piety; sanctity of life, property and honour; abolition of
interest, and of vendettas and private justice; better treatment
of women; obligatory inheritance and distribution of the
property of deceased persons among near relatives of both sexes,
and removal of the possibility of the cumulation of wealth in
the hands of the few." The Quran and the conduct of the
Prophet were to serve as the bases of law and a healthy
criterion in every aspect of human life.
On his return
to Madinah, he fell ill; and a few weeks later, when he breathed
his last, he had the satisfaction that he had well accomplished
the task which he had undertaken - to preach to the world the
Divine message.
He bequeathed
to posterity, a religion of pure monotheism; he created a
well-disciplined State out of the existent chaos and gave peace
in place of the war of everybody against everybody else; he
established a harmonious equilibrium between the spiritual and
the temporal, between the mosque and the citadel; he left a new
system of law, which dispensed impartial justice, in which even
the head of the State was as much a subject to it as any
commoner, and in which religious tolerance was so great that
non-Muslim inhabitants of Muslim countries equally enjoyed
complete juridical, judicial and cultural autonomy. In the
matter of the revenues of the State, the Quran fixed the
principles of budgeting, and paid more thought to the poor than
to anybody else. The revenues were declared to be in no wise the
private property of the head of the State. Above all, the
Prophet Muhammad set a noble example and fully practised all
that he taught to others.
